With sms, deaf children can speak

Often times, the deaf especially children are shut out of the world of their hearing peers. But with the success of the SMS social inclusion project piloted by Child Africa International School in Kabale, there is a chance for them to go ahead and communicate with the wider society, writes Robert Muhereza.

As the saying goes, disability is not inability. 12 deaf pupils at Child Africa in Kabale at last have a smile on their faces following the intervention of the Cambridge to Africa NGO facilitating them with Information Communication Technology skills through use of mobile phone SMS facility to communicate with non deaf pupils who are sign language illiterate.

Docus Ayebazibwe, 10, is one of the project beneficiaries and proudly says that she had no hope of communicating to the public if it was not the mercy of leaders at Child African Institute in Kabale who identified her from her local village of Rwakaraba located in the remote northern division of Kabale town.

“All my village mates used to laugh at me because I could not hear what they would say and also I did not have any way to speak to them. “I thank God who brought Child Africa institute leaders to my local village. Can you imagine an orphan like me using a mobile phone SMS facility at the age of 10 to communicate to educated people like you? God is great,” Ayebazibwe now in primary three, said.

Caroline Kembabazi, 12, lost both her parents, and is a beneficiary of the Cambridge to Africa ICT programme through Child Africa International school institute. She reveals that those who used to laugh at her because of her disability now look at her as a star because most of the rural community members do not know how to use sign language or mobile phone SMS facility.

“I can now visualise a bright future because I am far better than what I was when I was still shabby in the village four years ago. I am now in Primary Four and feel that education especially science is good for sign language people,” Kembabazi said.
The founder member of Child Africa International institute Ms Julie Solberg says the Mobile Phone Social Inclusion Project is aimed at integrating deaf and non deaf children at the Child Africa International School in Kabale.

The novel social inclusion project kicked off on March 9 and has been implemented at the Child Africa International School in Kabale to date. A mobile phone pilot study is examining how SMS text messaging can facilitate the integration of deaf and non deaf students enrolled at the school. The idea came from Dr Sacha DeVelle, the founder of the NGO, Cambridge to Africa that is based in Cambridge, UK,” Ms Solberg said. She reveals that 12 pupils are the pioneers of the project of whom six are deaf while the rest are not. Training involves teaching the children how to use a mobile phone especially the SMS facility.

“The project uses front line SMS software designed by Ken Banks of United Kingdom that captures the text data generated by students. All messages are routed to a central computer in Kabale that forwards them to a designated email address. The messages are then picked up in Cambridge and analysed for linguistic content and communication strategies,” Ms Solberg said.

Ms Solberg says plans are being made to scale up the project to include 50 children by the end of 2010. She also reveals that plans are in place to establish a computer laboratory to equip the deaf with computer use and repair skills as a way of making them job creators. Dr DeVelle says that this project is the first of its kind in Africa and the world at large, making it more exciting.

“The use of text messaging will also play a role in communication between deaf children enrolled at the school and their parents who often live in remote areas in case they have mobile phones,” Dr DeVelle, says. The Child Africa coordinator Mr. Michael Sabiiti says that the mobile phone project has excited all the students at the school and every body wants to be a part of it.